Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Personnel. Will the minister update the House on the measures taken by the government to reduce the exposure of our ADF personnel to trauma associated with border protection operations? What assistance are we providing to those who have been exposed to trauma as a result of their deployment on border protection operations?

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moore for his question, and I thank him for the work he does to support veterans in his own electorate and throughout Western Australia. It is often said that there is no greater service to our nation than to put on the uniform of our Navy, our Army or our Air Force and to be willing to place yourself in harm's way to help those who can't necessarily help themselves.

Historically, harm's way has normally meant conflicts abroad, whether it be wartime or in peacekeeping missions. In recent years, obviously, it's included Afghanistan and Iraq. But, as we all know, our ADF personnel can also be placed in harm's way much closer to home. On Operation Resolute, our ADF personnel have been deployed to protect our borders. They can be exposed to dangers when forming boarding parties to deal with unauthorised arrivals, often on boats which have been sabotaged and designed to sink and often working in hazardous sea conditions. They are also deployed on search and rescue missions, hoping to save people in peril of drowning at sea but all too often recovering bodies from the sea. It is traumatic, it is horrendous and there are quite sickening scenes, and it does have an impact. Our Department of Veterans' Affairs is already helping people with PTSD and other claims directly linked to their service on border protection activities. The government provides over $200 million annually to support those who have mental health issues.

I've got to say there is a hidden cost to the people smugglers' insidious trade. It is our ADF personnel and their families, the people that we put in harm's way, who carry that burden for the rest of their lives if we let the people smugglers get back into business. I want to quote from Senator Reynolds from the other place last night from her direct experience. She said:

Let me say to everybody here: it won't be the senators in this place who have to recover the bloated corpses of babies and women mauled by the sharks; it will be the men and women of the Australian Border Force and the Australian Defence Force, who have had to do it twice before … It won't be members of the House of Representatives who will be comforting our Defence and Border Force personnel who years later still wake with night terrors, reliving the horrors we knowingly inflicted on them.

Senator Reynolds speaks from her direct military experience. I know those opposite last time they were in government, when they changed our border protection laws, were full of good intentions. I don't suggest for a second there was any malice intended, but it sent the wrong message and the outcome was horrific: 50,000 people arriving on 800 boats, with 1,200 people tragically dying at sea.

I do urge those opposite to reconsider their position, to reconsider the direction they are taking right now. I fear they've started down a path which ends in more trauma and more lives lost. I don't want to see Australian Defence Force personnel placed in harm's way unnecessarily. I'd like to take the opportunity to advise both our current and former serving men and women of the services available. The Open Arms counselling service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 1800011046.